Cameron's counter-extremism plan rests on shaky foundations

Yesterday, David Cameron set out his five year vision for tackling extremism. In a piece for LSE's Politics and Policy blog, I offer some thoughts about its heavy focus on ideology, and consider some of the tensions inherent within the strategy that may cause problems for future policy.

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Billed as his most significant speech on extremism since taking office, David Cameron laid out his five year vision for combating extremist ideology at a school in Birmingham this week. In his speech, Cameron set out four principles the government believes important in defeating extremism: confronting extremist ideology; tackling violent and non-violent extremism; emboldening moderate Muslim voices; and building a more cohesive society. It was more detailed, and contained more nuance than comparable announcements in recent years, but the arguments Cameron set out face a number of significant challenges, both in terms of the policy likely to flow from it, and with respect to its fundamental premise: that by tackling extremist ideology, it will be possible to limit terrorism.

you can read the full piece over at the LSE policy & politics blog